LIFE
by PrincessApricity
Summary: Yet another Dramione, and yet another life class story, I can only hope this gets more generic.
1. Chapter 1

I've always found it odd how time seems so huge in the moment, but in retrospect, it all seems like it flew by. I can only wish now, as a baby I only learned of last month is being forced out of me like watermelon that somehow got stuck in a balloon, that time would only fly by faster. I would say that I feel bad for the balloon, but screaming at the top of one's lungs often prevents conversation.

"Another push Mrs. Malfoy, she's almost here!" The nurse said, though it sounded almost as if she was willing the baby out, if only to stop my horrid screaming, even I didn't know I was capable of such a terrifying noise. But with a last screech and a final push, the pain subsided to a dull throb, and my child was taken away to be measured and cleaned and swaddled and brought back to me. And at last I held my baby, thinking how quickly that had all gone by.

Draco marched into the room with his brave face on, a face I had seen only once before when he was partnered with me for this project. He strutted past the nurses, but once he arrived to me and looked at the tiny being swaddled and in my arms, he seemed a bit lost for what to do or say. His puzzled, yet thoughtful expression lasted all the way from the hospital wing back to our classroom, and to where we would draw from a hat our new place of residence.

With one arm wrapped around my newborn, I reached my other arm deep into the curious purple bowl, one with multicolored pom-poms hanging off its base, which much make it very hard to set down. I shuffled my hand amid the little pieces of paper, until I found one that felt just right, and it emitted a little golden glow as I pulled it out. smiled up at us when I recited back to her what the slip of paper said, "Fixer-Upper Large Home".

"Oh you two are bound to have fun there! I must remind you though, you may not under any circumstances come to sleep in your rooms at Hogwarts, no matter how much you want to! Now, run along! You'll find your trunks have already been delivered!" She said all this with her vividly exaggerated facial expressions through her periwinkle cat-eye glasses, to the both of us, tired and nothing more.

The confused, yet thoughtful look dropped from Draco's face when we saw our new home. The house was located on the outskirts of the magical town, created specifically for Life Class, and it was a wreck. Old blue paint peeled off the sides, trash was rotting about the yard, the door was hanging off it's hinges and most all of the windows were creepily boarded up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone! I'm so glad that you all have viewed my new story, and thank you all so much for the comments! Any writer will know how much it means, so I'll encourage you all to continue commenting and giving suggestions, thanks!**

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Now, let me back up a bit.

This all started a month ago at the very beginning of school, every person in the 8th year had a course on their schedule that we had never seen or heard of before. Now, me being Hermione Granger, it was extremely unusual that I wouldn't have been aware of a class, especially one that I was taking. But of course, this wasn't exactly the usual year, McGonagall had decided that all of the previous 7th years should retake their last year, as they hadn't really gotten to have it in the first place. But we've noticed that it's a bit different from what we did last year, for example, we have a mandatory bi-weekly counselling session, along with group therapy sessions weekly. We have specialized training courses for whatever job we've decided on, and there was a lot more flexibility with what classes we could choose to take. I immediately opted out of advanced divination and history of magic, though for very different reasons.

When we first started our "life class" and were briefed of the syllabus, we were told that it would be a class designed to teach us the basics of living in the real world, that it would be a year-long course, that we were going to be living off campus after a month of the class, and that we would each be partnered into fake marriages.

So of course I had to be paired with Draco Malfoy, and of course we had to share a suite in Hogwarts together, because it seemed that our new teacher "Mrs. Peridone" was dead-set on making everyone's lives miserable.

Most Gryffindors were placed with Slytherins (uhg), except of course for the endlessly lucky Harry Potter, who was with his true love Ginny. Not that I don't feel happy for them, I just wished I could have been with someone less conceited and obnoxious and awful. Though I guess that Ron was also paired with Pansy, and Luna was also placed with Blaise, so I wasn't the only one down shit-berry lane.

The first day each girl in every group had a spell placed on her, one that would give her a genetically accurate baby in a month's time. And so the first month was spent learning cooking, basic home repair, and relationship basics. I learned to juggle hormones and school at the same time, and I almost managed to ignore Malfoy several times, but sadly he seemed to have made a mission out of bothering me.

And all of this was why I nearly cried when I saw our house. Had Mrs. Peridone not put us through enough already?


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey all! So I sort of forgot to update this, even though I actually wrote the next three chapters in like March... oops :)**

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We spent the rest of the day trying to find a place to sleep, along with the delicate little bundle I had with me. The place looked worse on the inside, it was dark and dusty, basically everything looked in some way broken, and drafts flew in through the broken and boarded windows. We eventually found that the shed in the backyard was decent enough to sleep in, and had a supply of warm blankets on one of the shelves. I suspect this was purposeful, and it was comforting to know that had taken some pity on us.

I slept curled around my new baby, feeling ferociously protective of her in the strange environment, and the night passed slowly in bouts of dreamless sleep. All too soon though, it was morning, and a pounding behind-the-eyes headache accompanied my wakefulness. Draco was already awake, and it appeared that he had left the shed. So I groggily wiped my eyes and turned to the baby next to me, happy to see that she was sleeping peacefully. I decided to take her with me though, and I slowly swaddled her in an extra blanket and walked outside, her in my arms. It was then that I realized, stepping out of the shed and onto the dewy overgrown grass (not really grass, mostly moss and weeds), that I had not yet given a name to my daughter.

Looking down at her relaxed face, I studied her for what seemed like the first time. She opened her eyes slowly, and I noticed for the first time how striking her little eyes were. They were light blue, almost grey… just like Draco's, I realized.

She had light blonde baby hair, and a little nose that fit her little face oh-so-perfectly. Her little blue eyes blinked up at me, and I was overwhelmed with sudden love for her. But what to name her? Names walked slowly through my head, and finally one came upon me that stuck, 'Adeline'.

The back door creaked open and a dusty Draco walked through, his hair was visibly mussed up, and his face and hands and knees were dirty as though he had been walking around on his hands and knees. He walked toward us, and stopped in front of me, "Morning." he muttered.

"Good morning" I said back, looking back down at the baby that had fallen asleep again in my arms. "What have you been up to?"

"I was looking at the heating system, it appears to be intact, I'm going to work on the windows next." I blinked up at him again, confusedly wondering how he had learned to do those things.

"And how qualified are you to do those things?" He looked at me blankly, and then his tired face twisted into a small sneer.

"Better than you could, now, are you going to help me?" I simply nodded, too tired to argue, though still unsure as to his ability in home repair. We both walked inside and I looked about again, I could only be thankful that it was a Saturday. Draco started showing me things that I hadn't noticed before, like that the disgusting carpets could be pulled up, and underneath were beautiful hardwood floors. He told me that the walls could easily be fixed up and repainted (they were currently a dark yellowish orange), and the popcorn moldings on the ceiling could easily be sanded down to look normal and not out of the 1970's. He then handed me a list of things to go purchase at the hardware store, and I could only agree, not knowing enough to argue.

Soon I found myself in the magical town created especially for our class, the rest of the classes couples were crowding into the furniture warehouse, and I jealously passed them and made my way to the hardware store. It took me an hour of help from the increasingly frustrated store manager to find what I needed, I soon gave up questioning what everything was and how it worked and why this or that other product wouldn't be better, because I didn't want to cause any more trouble. Adeline started to cry towards the end, so I rushed out the store as fast as possible, and I realized that I should head over to the drug store for baby supplies and food.

I finally made it out, despite the embarrassment of walking around with a screaming child, I must have looked crazy with my undone hair and bags of home improvement materials.

When I got back, Draco was inspecting the ceiling. I stumbled in with a screaming Adeline, and he turned his head up looking angry. "What took you so long? I've been waiting for over an hour, not able to do anything!"

"Don't yell at me!" I snapped, but I sighed "I'm sorry, the hardware store took way too long because of Adeline-"

"Adeline?"

"Our child, I gave her a name."

"Oh."

"Anyways, I got lunch to make up for it, they had premade sandwiches and juice, do you want something?" He looked at the bags that contained food, before seeming to let go of his previous anger, and he grunted something that sounded like 'yes'.

I changed Adeline's diaper, which turned out to be the issue, and she was fine; and after lunch we went back to work, I to construct a make-shift crib, and Draco to do something technical that I don't understand with a hole in the wall. I ended up spending the rest of the day helping him, and simultaneously being impressed by him, because of his level of skill in something I would never have guessed that he would be skilled at. We called in people to replace our windows, and the windows were fixed by the end of the day. They turned out to be quite lovely, large and beautiful windows, designed to fill rooms with light. Even on the second floor, which I had been too scared to go into until now, was flooded with bright daylight.

We went to sleep that night in the shed again, after eating some of the extra sandwiches I bought. The day was surprisingly quiet, mine and Draco's interactions were short and far between, though he had seemed to hold some love for Adeline as well. I saw him occasionally throughout the day look at her in a way I had never seen him look at anything, and once I even came downstairs to see him smiling down at her in her makeshift crib, and holding her little hand in his larger one. I thought about all this with a small smile as I drifted off to sleep, curled around my Adeline as I had done the previous night, though much more content than I had felt at all in the past month.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up to the sound of Adeline crying, and I looked over through the darkness to see what could be happening, but saw nothing. I quickly got up picked her up with her blankets, she continued to wail, and I rocked her softly trying to get her to calm. This only seemed to make it worse, and she continued screaming and crying, I walked over to Draco (still fast asleep, somehow) and gave him a swift kick to the stomach. "Wake up!"

"Wha.. Huh?" He sat up and mumbled, rubbing his eyes with a hand and yawning, "What in the bloody name of… What did you do!?" He shouted and jumped up, looking panicked and angry.

"I didn't do anything! I woke up to her crying!" He grumbled and took her in his arms, but her crying only amplified at this. "See? She's just crying for no reason!"

"No, it can't be for no reason, something must have happened. Maybe she's too cold!" I almost saw a lightbulb over his head, and he grabbed some blankets to messily wrap around her. Her crying did not stop.

"No! Now she's too hot!" I looked at him angrily, and took Adeline from him to throw the extra blankets off.

"Did you burp her properly yesterday?"

"Yes"

"With the proper technique that we learned in class?"

"What other technique would I use? I don't know any others!"

"Well I was only asking!" Our arguing was escalating to shouting, and this only made Adeline more upset, if that was possible. I threw my hands up in the air, giving up, I looked up to the ceiling as if praying to some deity, and it was then that I noticed the possum hanging from a beam in the miniature roof.

"AHH! THERE'S A RODENT IN HERE, GET IT OUT GET IT OUT!" I screamed and pointed at the ceiling, staring with terrified eyes at the possum that was staring back at me. Draco started and looked up, confused, until he saw what I saw.

"Bloody hell, well that's probably what she's upset about"

"I don't care! Now get it out!" I ran over to get my baby, and I backed up while Draco examined the situation. The thing was, I wasn't scared for myself, I was absolutely terrified that Adeline had been in a room with a possum and absolutely no defense. I had my baby in my arms now though, and that comforted me, even as she was screaming, and even as I watched Draco attempt to hit the possum down with a broom.

After ten long minutes, the possum was successfully chased out, and we inspected the shed for more critters that could disturb us, but found none. Once the creature was out, Adeline calmed down, as if she knew it was gone. So we retired back to our make-shift beds for a few short hours of sleep, before waking up to the sun streaming through the windows covered in wire netting.

I sleepily sat up and stretched my arms, reaching into the air and wiggling my fingers. After a minute of sitting and staring about, mostly checking for rodents, I stood and shuffled to the door, opened it, and stepped into the morning air. Across the grass and onto the soggy wooden deck, I didn't mind getting my feet dirty, I hadn't been able to shower anyways. Draco told me today that he would fix up the oven, the plumbing, and pull out some carpets, but that I would need to clean a lot. So I walked out into town, and over to the grocery store. Twenty minutes later I walked out with rice cereal, a small bottle of milk, some more sandwiches and uncooked pasta, fruit, and a bucket load of cleaning supplies.

Draco was up and about when I arrived back, he was busy pulling up some disgusting carpet, and Adeline was happily snoozing in her little makeshift crib. He looked up when I came in, and I was surprised for just a second when looking at his face, he was actually slightly attractive when not looking evil. A strange feeling washed through me, but I quickly shook it off to tell him I had gotten breakfast, and we sat down on the floor to eat some cereal and fruit.

"Okay," I said, setting down the plastic dish into our temporary trash bin (just a grocery store bag), "I'm going to go upstairs to clean." He nodded and stood as well, copying my actions and walking over to his previous occupation of tearing out carpet.

Upstairs was just as much of a mess as the downstairs, all except the windows, which were new and pristine. I started with dusting, methodically removing cobwebs and thick dust from corners and the tops of broken book shelves.

I made my way through each room, dusting and listening to the sounds of thumping and ripping. By the end of my dusting spree my arm was exhausted, so I took a short break on the floor of the master bedroom. I then noticed how absolutely disgusting the carpet was, but it all appeared to be dry. I wondered how it would look if I vacuumed it, and thinking that a little bit of cleaning might be all it needed, I went to the home store and bought a vacuum and a carpet cleaner. Of course, these were both hand held, as me and Draco had decided to conserve as much money as possible for home repairs, since there were quite a few to be made.

When I got back, I was stunned to see that the disgusting carpet in the entryway had been mostly removed, and the woods underneath… they weren't exactly the beautiful that Draco had described….

"Malfoy?" I called. My call was met with a response in footsteps coming from the upstairs, he came down the stairs with Adeline in his arms and a small proud smile on his face.

"I fixed the plumbing, we can now have water!"

"Wow, really? That was fast."

"Well despite what you may think, Granger, I did pay decent attention in the home repairs section of our class… unlike someone I know" he looked pointedly at me, a small smirk gracing his face.

"Well alright, I'm going to go vacuum-"

"Wait!" He said, smiling, somehow surprising me more at his sudden shift of tone. I was stunned, so I stopped, and I followed as he gestured me to follow him. He brought me into the dining room, and spun around to look at me proudly.

"…Yes?"

"Do you not see the lack of carpet?"

"I see it, I also see ugly wood…"

"No, no, wait, I thought that at first too. But really, watch this." He ran over into the kitchen, and I heard running water, he came back a moment later with a wet paper towel. I watched on curiously as he crouched down, still holding Adeline, and wiped the paper towel across the floor, and scrubbed a bit. Though I should have been stunned again at the brilliant smile on his face, one that I had never seen before, I was more surprised at the fact that the wood flooring had been covered in a layer of grime, and in truth was beautiful dark oak. "So, all we need are a couple of cleaning spells and these floors will be beautiful!"

The excitement in his voice was unusual, but I rolled with it and performed a quick cleaning spell, and soon beneath our very feet was a shining dark wood floor.


End file.
